Your views from the Southeast Valley

Truly minimizing school shootings first requires understanding the causes and then implementing appropriate actions.

Advocating more weapons in the classroom simply promotes the idea that these incidents are best handled by shootouts rather than with prevention. The premise that more guns equals less gun violence is contradicted by an Internet search that easily finds multiple shooting incidents across the country in police stations and gun shows where guns abound.

Anyone who wants to understand the facts about school shootings should read the 2002 Secret Service report, â€śImplications For The Prevention Of School Attacks In The United States.â€ť

School shootings are terrible tragedies, and we must do all we can to prevent them.

But to make our children safer, we must set school policies based on facts and reason instead of fear and misconceptions.

As a school-board member, thatâ€™s what I intend to do.

â€” Robert Rice,
governing-board member,
Chandler Unified School District

Parents need to home in on kids

Ross Robbâ€™s â€śMy Turn,â€ť (Jan.18) should be read by all involved with government in Washington, D.C. Mr. Robb makes sense. The talks and ideas go around and around … will it ever be solved involving the NRA? It seems very doubtful.

I truly believe in Ross Robb stating we should all start TODAY with a single act of caring and concern that we would not have extended prior to the events of Dec.14.

I do believe kindness for others begins in our own homes. Parents of today (not all of them) choose to ignore so many unkind actions of their little children.

Parents of today (not all of them) desire teachers to do what parents should do as far as correcting childrenâ€™s bad actions and bad study habits.

But wait a minute … if teachers try to discipline children, parents (not all of them) would choose to sue the teachers if they as much as tried to display â€śdiscipline.â€ť What a world we live in! Itâ€™s nothing like the past, for sure. Get with it, parents (not all of them).

Congratulations to those who care about others, and of course, care about their children.

If children have a problem that needs to be addressed, parents of those children need to center in on helping their children who truly need love and caring to help them in their future life. Respect needs to be restored.

â€” Anna M. Miller, Mesa

Sick of hearing gun nuts talk

In the Revolutionary and Civil wars, we fought as a regulated militia and the U.S. Army, respectively, not unorganized gun toters.

The idea that unorganized, paranoid (I believe) gun wielders are going to â€śtake to the streets,â€ť as a co-worker of mine said to me, with their handguns and assault rifles and are going to overthrow President Barack Obama and the United States Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy is totally insane and ludicrous.

I voted against George W.Bush, but when he won, I, as an American military veteran, moved over and stood behind him.

President Bush became my commander-in-chief.

We just buried 20 babies in Connecticut (where are the right-to-lifers in this gun debate?). I am totally sick of gun-nut talk.

â€” Stan Rocklin, Mesa

AZ must issue water restrictions

I am sick of reading about Arizonaâ€™s ongoing drought when the cities and Arizona agencies donâ€™t start mandatory water reduction.

Talk is cheap. Initiate water restrictions for everyone.

â€” Jackie Rensel, Mesa

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